Learners will deepen their understanding and appreciation of ways in which race, ethnicity and cultural diversity have shaped American institutions, ideology, law, and social relationships from the colonial era to the present. Race and ethnicity are ideological and cultural categories that include all groups and individuals. Hence, this course is designed in significant part to take a broad look at the ideology of race and cultural diversity in America’s past and present. The primary focus is on the historical and social relationships among European Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Latino/as, and Asian/Pacific Americans. Issues of race and ethnicity are examined across different ethno-cultural traditions in order to interweave diverse experiences into a larger synthesis of the meaning of race and ethnicity in American life. In this course, we conceive of “race” and “diversity” as references to the entire American population, even as we recognize that different groups have unique historical experiences resulting in distinctive and even fundamental cultural differences. We treat race and ethnicity as dynamic, complex ideological and cultural processes that shape all social institutions, belief systems, inter-group relationships, and individual experiences.

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From the lesson

Legacies of Race and Racism Today

The course now turns in this third module to the complex lived realities of race and ethnic diversity in contemporary American society. Among the issued explored include geographical segregation and racial bias.

Taught By

James D. Anderson

Edward William and Jane Marr Gutsgell Professor of Education

Transcript

And now we turn to the 2015 short videos on how racists lived in America and the conversations that were being held from one group to another. Now the aim of the videos, much like the essays, was to try to get an understanding in the ways in which different segments of the American population actually experience or live in their day to day life. And the ways in which day-to-day living is impacted all end to end in effect relationships based on race. Now one of the videos is on Asian Americans. And we see that the issues and some of the concerns that affect Asian Americans are unique. There are similarities but there are many of them that are unique. The participants in this video discuss the challenge and even the problems of being stereotyped as a model minority. And they also realize that they are often lumped into a group without any distinctions among or between Cambodians, or Laotians, or Hmong, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos. That they are all lumped into a group call Asian Americans. Almost with the pretext that they are some kind of uniform culture as well as uniform traditions among the groups. And so they are rendered invisible in this way. And people don't pay attention to the particular backgrounds, the particular cultures, and they certainly don't pay much attention to them as individuals. They also talked about their experience as children growing up in different neighborhoods, different parts of the country. In ways in which childhood friends already knew about ethnic slurs that hurt and that were very painful for them to have to deal with and ultimately they focused a lot on this sense of invisibility. And people see them as a stereotype, not as individuals, and not as distinctive groups. And so it was interesting to see that particular vision because no other group within the videos actually talked about being stereotyped as a model minority. A second video with Latinos on Race. And from the offset, the participants in this video, Latinos, really talked about the difficulty of even defining Latino, particularly along the lines of race or skin color. There are Latinos that are very dark skinned, Latinos that are white. Some of the individuals talked about people saying I am insane, you don't look like Latino, as if there is a particular look when in fact, there is no particular look. It runs a full range of phenotypic traits. They understand that but people who interact with them seem to think that there should be something that they could call a Latino look. Others spoke of the frustrations of having to be Latino. Sometimes there were Latinos who, in this particular video, Latinos who were black. And people then would question whether they were Latinos, the ones who were white, and they also question whether they were Latinos. And the frustration of having to always explain oneself, things that they take for granted, being Cuban or being Puerto Rican and being of any skin color. They know the places which they descend from. That they descend from a population where racists, ideas about race and even ideas about skin color, are much more fluid than they are in the US. And it's no surprise to them that Latinos look like the full range of the human population because that's in fact where they descend from. And so, this whole process of trying to box them in, to stereotype them, it's something that is very frustrating. The conversation with black women on race really was a way to look at the multi-layered ways in which race affects African American women. In this documentary, African American women talk about the unique experience, the unique challenges they face as women. And they also express some concerns, even some frustration, that they often get lumped together into some larger ideas or larger understandings about race. And their unique experiences are ignored, and people don't pay much attention to the ways in which they live from day to day and the kinds of challenges they face. And so there was much talk in this video about the importance of looking at African-American women in their own right, on their own terrain, in their own context. And to recognize that their challenges are often different than that of the other segment of the American population. The conversation with white people on race varied in so many ways. There were some participants who believed strongly in equality. In fact, most of them in general believe in equality. And in some ways it was kind of like preaching to the choir. That people who participated were already committed to a willingness to not only discuss race but seemed to be quite progressive. Having said that, they also expressed discomfort and uneasiness about talking about race. Many of them said that they hadn't thought much about, at least hadn't thought much of themselves as belonging to race. I mean, they understand and they take for granted their skin color, but the notion that they belong to a particular ethnic group with a particular ethnic history. And a particular relationships to other groups was that something that many of them had not thought about. And the deeper that they went into the conversation, in some cases, or in most cases, the more tense the conversation. One of the more interesting and dramatic of the videos in 2015 is the one called, A Conversation About Growing Up Black. And it's really young black boys and young men talking about the kinds of things they go through from day to day living. And the suspicions that people have of them. The stereotypes that people have of them. And the end in this video really went to discussion about what they say to their parents as they recognize that their parents are also fearful of what could happen to them. What would happen to them in police community interactions or when they interact with law enforcement. What happens to them when they go to school? And they were trying to convince their parents or at least speak to their parents and say explicitly that they understood the lessons. And that they were going to try as much as possible not to disappoint them into living the way. But what comes through is all the adjustments that they have to make because of the color of their skin. One individual talks about getting off the bus with a friend who's white. And they looked down the street and the white friend say's, let's cross the street. They didn't want to pass by all the black kids that they saw. And he's really puzzled because he said, does the friend not realize that I'm black also? And to speak to him as though somehow he would share that perspective, is just one example of the numerous examples that come through in this documentary. Really giving us a very vivid and up close and personal view about what it means to grow up black in American society. The conversation with police is also interesting because what they decided to do in this short video is to select people from various backgrounds. And so there are police who are African Americans, police who are white, police who are women, males and so forth. And they really are trying to get a sense of how the police view this question of the impact of race, particularly within their ranks. Now, there are some police officer who thinks that race is not that important in their work. That they don't really make decisions based on race. There are other police officers in the same video who think that race is a serious problem within the ranks of the police. It's something that they should be concerned about, and many of them have, because all of these are former police officers, many of them have left the force and even become activists to try to help resolve this problem. So there's varied opinions within this group of police officers about the relationship and the ways in which it's affected by race. The conversation with my black son is a dramatic and painful one to watch because here you have black parents who are trying to tell the country, what they do in order to raise their sons. So that they won't get in trouble. And the things they have to tell them. For instance, they have to say things like, if you're stopped by the police, don't say a word until I get there. Try to call me and make sure that I get there. Or, keep both hands on the steering wheel so there will be no suspicion that you're up to anything other than being cooperative. Now, just a whole number, whole set of practices that come through in this video. Really, from mothers and fathers about how they raise their black sons to cope with and survive what they know would be the reality and the impact of their skin color as they move beyond the home into the larger society. It's another way of us actually getting an understanding of how race shapes the way in which people always feel about themselves. How it shapes the way in which they raise their children. How it shapes that consciousness in terms of how they cope with and survive day-to-day living. And it's one of the more revealing lessons that come through in this series of videos.

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